Elias (Youssef) of Aleppo and Iskenderun

His Eminence, Metropolitan Elias (Youssef) of Aleppo and Iskenderun led the Diocese of Aleppo of the Church of Antioch during the last three decades of the twentieth century.
He was born in Tartous, Syria on August 1, 1931. He began his theological education at the theological school at Balamand Monastery and continued it at the Universities of Athens and Thessalonica in Greece. He was elected to the see of Aleppo in 1971 and was consecration of a bishopconsecratedmetropolitan by Patriarch Elias (Muawad) IV and Metropolitans Ignatius of Lattakia, Athansios of Hama, Constantine of Bagdad, and Alexis of Homs.

Metropolitan Elias reposed on August 6, 2000 on the afternoon of the feast of the Holy Transfiguration, and was buried in Aleppo after a funeral service led by Patriarch Ignatius IV.